Public Safety distributing more resident parking passes to freshmen

Some KU students say they have been finding it harder to park near dormitory buildings after Public Safety issued more resident passes to freshmen last year.

In previous years, Public Safety issued around 50 resident passes to students who were freshmen, but last year that increased to over 200 passes, according to Matt Santos, KU’s Director of University Relations.

In previous years, freshmen were offered passes to park in only the Fairgrounds lot. Recently, Public Safety parking authorities have offered Freshmen parking passes that allow them to park in the C lots near the on campus housing.

This change allotted split opinions between upperclassmen and Freshmen. Freshman Alyssa Browning said she “loves the opportunity to park closer to where she is living, it allows me to have access to my car without worrying about walking 20 minutes.”

Another freshman, Jose Fernandez, was ecstatic when asked about the distribution of parking passes to freshmen.

“I honestly probably wouldn’t have brought my car to school if I had to park in the Fairgrounds parking lot,” Fernandez said. “This allows me to be close to my car at all times.”

On the other side of the spectrum, Junior Alex Nitchie finds the parking situation affecting her negatively.

“When I get home from work late at night, I have to park 20 minutes away from my apartment, making it very unsafe for me to walk back alone around midnight,” Nitchie said.

Another Junior, Katelyn Wilson, said, “The fact that they gave freshman more parking passes this year is ridiculous. My freshman year, we were forced to park in Fairgrounds.”

With this increase of passes, it led to an increase of parking violations as well.

“With the increase of passes, I have had over three parking violations this semester alone,” said Taylor Parasconda, a sophomore. “Last year, I received only one violation and it was a misunderstanding the first week of school.”

According to Santos, parking violations nearly doubled last semester.

“Students who return at night and cannot find a parking spot end up parking in restricted spots to avoid parking far away,” said sophomore Laura Meyers.

Moving forward, Santos said that upcoming years will not result in as many freshmen resident passes since it has resulted in an increase in parking violations and complaints.